Color calibration for image rendering devices is well-known. Many techniques for correcting color in a printer, for example, have been and are being developed. For color consistency in color printing, however, there are situations where mere color correction or calibration is not sufficient. For example, pages might match on average as determined by a color correction or calibration technique, but they may differ significantly in some regions. When these pages are cut and compared, the resulting appearance may not meet expectations. Similarly, when multiple print engines are used, the outputs of the multiple engines can differ significantly. These differences may occur even if the resulting prints are identical in the one location on the page where they are measured, or identical on average across the page.
In this regard, substantial work has been done on techniques for implementing spatial corrections. Spatial corrections are implemented to correct for physical non-uniformities within the printer. For example, in situations where the printer includes multiple printing stations, different physical phenomena may be occurring at each of the separate stations. For example, roller pressures may differ from station to station. Significantly, pressures from the same roller may differ across a width of a page. This could result in an image differing from one side of the page to the other. As a further example, spatial corrections may be implemented to address non-uniformities associated with a particular photoreceptor, for example. In this regard, particularly when multiple print stations or multiple photoreceptors are used, toner may migrate from an intermediate transfer belt within the printer back to a photoreceptor in an undesired manner.
So, techniques have been developed to suitably apply spatial corrections to printing systems. In particular, these techniques are typically focused on one dimension, or a single color of printing. As discussed above, color calibration is also known. However, the use of techniques for spatial correction to pre-condition a printer to conduct a better color calibration has not yet been heretofore realized. It would be desirable to do so.